north of the Tayloe House, and was expanding rapidly. It valued the home at $60,000 and the furnishings at an additional $5,000. The Cosmos Club declined to buy the home after an investigation found that the cost of upgrading the Tayloe property for its use would be too costly. Cameron years Senator Don Cameron of Pennsylvania purchased the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House for $60,000 in 1887, and resided there for a time. Cameron expanded the home significantly, almost entirely rebuilding its interior. After the renovation, the front entrance opened onto a square entrance hall. A fireplace adorned the hall. Large rooms on either side of the entrance hall were used as office space. A broad staircase led from the entrance hall up to the second floor, where there were four large rooms. The rooms opened on to one another, permitting the second floor to be opened up into something approaching a single large ballroom. The windows on the second floor reached to the floor. An iron veranda ran around the entire second floor. The home contained a total of 30 rooms after the renovation. Cameron did not, however, renovate the exterior, which remained much the same as it always had. Henry Adams was a frequent guest of the Camerons, playing often with their daughter Martha to alleviate his bouts of depression. About 1896, the U.S. Senate passed legislation which would have made the building the official residence of the Vice President of the United States, but the House of Representatives failed to act on the bill. Cameron leased the house to Vice President Garret Hobart from March 1897 until the fall of 1899. No other Vice President had ever lived so close to the White House, and this close proximity helped boost Hobart's access to and influence with the President so much that he was called "Assistant President" and is now considered one of the most powerful Vice Presidents in U.S. history. On several occasions Hobart entertained the entire U.S. Senate at the house, as well as President William McKinley. The International Boundary Commission (which established much of the water and land boundary between the U.S. and Canada) dined in the house at a formal dinner hosted by Hobart, as did Prince Albert of Belgium. The press and public nicknamed the house the "Historic Corner" and the "Cream White House" (a reference to the color of its brickwork) for the